Unfamiliar Atmosphere
by Katie Day
Summary: METROIDSTARFOX CROSSOVER: Fox delves further into Samus' troubles and tries to console her doubt in things. R&R Chapter 11 up.
1. Strange Planet

PROLOGUE: Strange Planet  
  
It was one of many galaxies amongst many of countless stars and astral bodies. Each piece of the universe seemed as insignificant as the next as they floated or careened across the blackness of deep space. It was an awesome and thought provoking sight-something that would leave most scientists occupied for hours on end wondering and wondering...  
  
The famed Arwing cruised absently through that blackness, its pilot the equally famed and well-known McCloud. His green eyes meandered over all that surrounded him as he scratched a little behind his left dark tipped ear. The tip of his full tail twisted and he coasted a bit in the Arwing so it hovered aimlessly as he let his head fall back against the seat.  
  
Fox was wondering, too, as he glanced out into the dark. He wondered what the hell was taking Slippy so long. The two of them had left the base together, heading out to pick up some repair parts and extra supplies concerning their ships and weapons. At some point they had separated to cover two different locations at once. Slippy had said it would give them a better deal than trying to buy the supplies in bulk from one area. If the merchants thought you really needed it, they would jack up the price easily enough. Fox didn't particularly like dealing with merchants at all. Most of them were the same way.  
  
He'd retrieved his shipment within a decent amount of time without much trouble, and then he had headed to the quadrant Slippy had said they would meet back at. It'd been nearly an hour by this point. At first Fox had figured his froggy wingmate had gotten distracted by some new mechanical toy at the outlet. Being the die-hard techie he was, Slippy tended to do that. He could also go on for hours about how much he wished he could see all the older models again-what he would do with them.and so on..and so on..  
  
But this was ridiculous. For one, Slippy usually wouldn't lag long when he knew he had new tools to work with on the ships (one of his favorite past-times). For two, an hour was too long even for him.  
  
Reaching out Fox attempted to hail the frog's ship a second time. The first time there had been no answer, so he figured Slippy was still negotiating things. Tapping a couple of the controls he sent out the signal and waited. Just when his fur had begun to bristle with annoyance, he got an answer.  
  
"Slippy here!" greeted the squeaky voice. "Oh, Fox! Hi! What's up?"  
  
"I don't know," Fox replied, crossing his arms. "You tell me." Slippy continued to stare at him with that blank frog look and then seemed to realize what Fox meant.  
  
"Ohhh. Yeah, I'm sorry," he chuckled, embarrassed. "I had to land down here on this nearby planet. My ship started acting kind of funny so I didn't figure it was safe to keep flying without checking it out."  
  
"Well, you could have TOLD me that.."  
  
"Er.yeah.. I'm sorry. I guess I kinda got caught up. You remember those new thrusters I installed on my ship.?" Fox nodded slowly. "Yeah, well.. They're kind of uninstalling themselves if you know what I mean."  
  
"..They're falling off??"  
  
"Kinda."  
  
"..Now you know why Pepper told us to hold off on those until they were perfected," Fox said with a sigh.  
  
"Yeah..yeah I know. I just couldn't help it.," Slippy replied. "It's okay, though! I should be able to reattach them long enough to get back to the base!"  
  
"Where are you? It would be faster if I just tow you back." Slippy looked at the screen a moment, figiting like felt a bit dejected that Fox wouldn't let him do his work. Fox continued to look at him in return, cocking an ear down in annoyance as he waited for an answer. Pouting frogs looked like frogs at any other time, but Fox hated it regardless. "Slippy."  
  
"Oh, alright. I forgot the name. Just give me a second and I'll pull up my map." The frog's green face slipped out of view and Fox tapped his foot a bit in waiting. Just as he was about to make sure his wingmate was still there, the communication window fizzled and went totally staticy. Fox raised a furry brow at this, his mouth opening a bit in curiousity revealing the tiny lower fangs.  
  
"Slippy? Come in. Slippy?" He asked. There was no response. Bewildered, he began tapping at the controls of his Arwing again, trying to see if he could find Slippy's location by tracking where his responsive signal had been sent from.  
  
"Signal is no longer available," his ship's computer chimed in. He glanced up to the voice and hmmed lowly. He then commanded the computer to backtrack through the most recent signals he'd received. Sure enough Slippy's was there. Upon bringing up this record a small map and location of the planet he had spoken of arose on Fox's screen.  
  
"Tallon IV.. That'll be new..," he said quietly to himself as he read the name. It was a planet he had never personally visited, mostly because it was out of his home system entirely. Slippy had also insisted they travel a long distance from home to get the perfect parts. He had also insisted that ordering them for delivery would take too long or cost too much. As the situation led on, Fox began to think he didn't like Slippy too much right now.  
  
Seeing he really had no choice, he set his ship to fly out to this Tallon IV. It would be irresponsible for him to leave a crew member somewhere stranded..plus the frog had the other half of the shipment. Pepper wouldn't have liked it very much if Fox lost either of the two.  
  
The planet itself was pretty solitary. Not much really surrounded it so it was easy enough for Fox to brush past the atmosphere and clouds. He looked down on the initial appearance of the planet thoughtfully. Where he had chosen to land was full of lush greenery and many a stream or waterfall, and yet it seemed to be lacking any sort of civilization at first glance.  
  
Bringing out the landing gear he set down on the ground gracefully. Making sure the air was breathable first, he opened the cockpit and stepped up to get a better look. With one scan of his eyes he didn't see Slippy's ship at first. Upon the third or first time his eyes caught sight of it, though. It was half submerged in a small water body near a waterfall. Again, one of Fox's ears curved down. The frog hadn't said anything about having crashed, particularly in water. If that had been the case he would have been more agitated when they talked.  
  
Stepping back down into his cockpit he retrieved his blaster and hopped back out. The cockpit closed once he was no longer within it.  
  
"Nothing can ever be simple, can it.?" he muttered under his breath as he began the search for the missing pilot.  
  
As he trodded along through the clearing, there came a solitary "chirrup" noise. From behind one of the fins on Slippy's ship emerged a strange round little creature. It resembled something like a jellyfish in upper body structure, colored bright reds and greens. However, as it floated in the air, sensing Fox's bodily heat, it clicked together it's numerous little mandibles.  
  
Energy! It chirruped. 


	2. Enter the Hunter

CHAPTER 2: Enter the Hunter  
  
"Look out, Fox!" came a shrill cry.  
  
Fox turned to react but was barreled over suddenly by something he couldn't see. He felt a strange sharpness piercing his fur and he yelped, flailing to try and knock whatever it was off. The more he struggled to get away or shoot over his shoulder, the more drained he felt. When he stopped thrashing so wildly, he realized that it made no difference. His energy was being siphoned from his body!  
  
Straining again to make his body function, Fox whirled and gave another attempt to fire over his shoulder. It worked this time and he gave a relieved breath as he felt the sharpness retract from him. Not wasting any time, he scurried to his feet to find his assailant.  
It certainly wasn't what he expected.  
  
The Metroid jiggled in the air and screed at him angrily, clicking its mandibles again. Fox lifted both arms and aimed at it without a second thought. The blast from his gun caused the floating creature to bob backward a bit with a surprised "Warwhak!"  
  
"Fox!!" came the call again. Fox glanced towards Slippy's voice and saw that his comrade was half submerged in the water where his ship had been left. He waved a hand frantically. "Quick! Over here!!!" Fox glanced back at the Metroid, which looked like it was still trying to regain its bearings. Quickly he dashed over towards Slippy. Just as he was a couple feet from the pool of water another angrily scree came from behind him. "Duck!!!"  
  
Instantly Fox dropped to the ground and covered his head. The charging Metroid flew overhead and smacked into the stone wall by the waterfall there. It wobbled again, bewildered. Fox scrambled over to Slippy who instantly pulled him underwater. Before anything could be explained, the frog gestured for Fox to follow him. Fox did so, semi dog paddling, and just hoped his wingmate didn't forget he wasn't an amphibian.  
  
Fairly soon they surfaced again in a small room that the water led to. Fox sputtered and clambered up out of the water, his fur sticking up a bit from its new moisture.  
  
"What the hell was that??" He asked, wiping his face with an arm as Slippy surfaced and bobbed in the water.  
  
"I'm not sure.! I haven't seen anything like it before. It's awful aggressive, though. All I've been able to tell is it doesn't like water!"  
  
"Ehn..," Fox groaned lightly, reaching to feel the light wounds on his back.  
  
"Did it get you bad?" Slippy asked, slipping out from the water to come look.  
  
"That thing is dangerous. It felt like it was sucking the life outta me," Fox sort of replied, looking at the bit of blood on his glove now. "Damnit."  
  
"I shoulda warned you earlier, but if I'd said anything it would have been right on me. They'd been attacking my ship ever since we lost contact," Slippy said, inspecting the wounds.  
  
"They?.There was more?" Fox asked, half turning, then hissed and sat straight forward again.  
  
"Yeah. I went to pick up my tools from outside when I was talkin' to ya and there was about five or six of them trying to mow down on my ship! Once they saw me they flew after me screeching something terrible. I fell into the water here and they didn't come after me so I assumed it was the only safe place."  
  
"Leave it to you to land on the craziest planet in the area."  
  
"I'm sorry, Fox.. Really."  
  
"It's alright," Fox replied with a grunt. The pain was starting to subside. The wounds weren't deep but they sure smarted. "Did you see where the others went?"  
  
"Naw. I assume they got bored and left but that one seemed bound and determined to sink its.whatever those were into me." Fox got to his feet, giving his shoulders a testing stretch with a flick of his tail.  
  
"Well, I'm not sure I want to attempt going back out there just yet. All we can really do is have a look around and see if we can't find another way around to the Arwing. I just wish this place wasn't so foreign."  
  
"Right-o," Slippy replied and followed Fox as he walked down the small stretch of hall towards a polygonal door. Stopping in front of it he looked for a handle or mechanism of some sort to open it. There was nothing in plain sight. "Maybe you hafta push it. Ya know.like those ancient doorways.," his comrade offered.  
  
"I guess," Fox replied, stepping forward to try giving the door a good shove. It didn't budge or give any hint that it planned on moving. Fox's fur bristled a bit again in frustration. "We don't have time for this!" Pulling out his blaster he aimed it at the door, intent on blowing it up.  
  
"Are you sure you should--?" Slippy began. Fox fired. The door didn't melt or deflect the shot like Slippy had suspected, but rather the door opened up upon impact. Both blinked and Fox looked at his blaster.  
  
"Okay, now I know this place is screwed up," Fox said, holstering his blaster and walking through the door with Slippy close behind.  
  
Back at the landing site in Tallon's Overworld another ship was descending through the clouds. It's fiery underbelly blasters rotated according to ensure a clean landing. The ship itself was stout in height and was colored a bright orange. It seemed very simple in structure, the only real noticable feature being its greenish front window.  
  
Once the ship had settled, a hatch at its top shifted and opened, raising up a figure to its surface. The equally orange armor clad bounty hunter took a glance around and tried to decipher the situation. She had caught remnants of foreign ship signals around the system, and had become a bit alarmed when she found out one of them was on Tallon. The signal, once properly analyzed, was found to be non-Pirate. This relieved her, but she had continued on to check it out anyway.  
  
Samus Aran, or the Hunter, as she was known by the Space Pirates, knew that the Metroids had begun to breed on this planet. Knowing they could be quite the hassle to anyone who didn't know how to deal with them, she'd been keeping tabs on the planet..figuring she might monitor the little creatures herself. ..It also occurred to her she might find many a job opportunity saving poor saps who were dumb enough to venture unwittingly into the area.  
  
It seemed her instincts were right as they often were. The two empty ships gave her hint of that much. Hopping down off her own, she began walking along to inspect the foreign machinery, scanning it with her visor.  
  
The one ship still seemed to be in working condition. She only hoped her possible new employers were still in one piece as well. 


	3. Confrontations

CHAPTER 3: Confrontations  
  
As Fox and Slippy continued to cautiously explore this newfound territory they began to realize that it was pretty empty. Beyond the many strange and native creatures it seemed as if no one had led a long life on the planet's surface. In the back of Fox's mind he wondered if this was because of those strange, aggressive little creatures. They certainly made him want to get off the planet as soon as possible.  
  
Slippy became interested in the door mechanisms they had encountered about five times now. The idea that gunfire was used to open a door (mostly the reason behind it) was beyond him. Besides these little structures he hadn't been able to see many technological remnants at all.  
  
The two pilots had both taken notice of some rather eerie statues that seemed to dot certain parts of the area, mostly the ruins they passed through. Despite sitting in what seemed to be ancient surroundings, these statues appeared to remain quite in tact. They were stone, as Slippy was able to determine by simply scanning them, but they were finely carved and intricately designed.  
  
They appeared to be watching..waiting..with shimmering eyes that appeared to view everything..  
  
What gave Fox the worst chills, however, was the fact that many of these creations had their claw like hands held out as if for an offering. Their eyes shining over what appeared to be beaks set in their faces, they gave off the aura of EXPECTATION.  
  
At times they came across strange scrawlings on the walls. When Slippy attempted to decipher them with the help of his hand held database, he found that of all he had, this particular language was not amongst them. Not knowing was one of Slippy's worst annoyances. He didn't like anything he couldn't learn about right away.  
  
"Well, it's safe to say SOMEONE'S been here before, right?" he asked aloud, mostly to himself. Fox rested his gloved paw on the trunk of the tree that had grown and latched itself into the corner of their current room and location.  
  
"Of course. Someone had to have carved those statues we saw. It couldn't have been those amoebas with teeth.. If it was I would be sorely surprised."  
  
"I was sort of hoping we'd find some long lost civilization."  
  
"We did. It's everywhere we've looked-just very faint."  
  
"Well, no. I meant a civilization that left behind some sort of technology I might be able to form into crude communicative objects. If we could send out a signal somewhere we could get backup," the frog said sitting on one of the protruding roots of the tree.  
  
"I'm not requesting backup unless it's absolutely necessary," Fox replied, stepping down from the tree to check out the rest of the stone and earthen room.  
  
"...This isn't necessary???" Slippy asked after a moment's blank silence. Fox looked at him simply.  
  
"We're going to get out of here just fine. And besides, what good would it do to bring more people down here to get attacked by those things. We don't know how many there might be. Heck, what if those are just babies? Ever think of what their mother might look like?" Slippy's already wide froggy eyes widened as much more as they possibly could at the thought.  
  
"We're doomed."  
  
"Hey, hey. I didn't say to go to the other extreme now," Fox chuckled. He had fun playing on his comrade's imagination, knowing that the frog would think up something ten times worse than he ever would at the mere suggestion.  
  
"This is all my fault, too. If I hadn't landed.no-if I hadn't installed those thrusters!" Slippy wallowed, kicking the trunk of the tree in frustration with a webbed foot.  
  
"Slippy.," Fox said lightly, tilting his head and trying to somewhat start consoling the frog. Before he could say anything more, however, his ears perked at a peculiar buzzing noise. He turned from where he had been standing under a stoney overhang set upon crude stone pillars and looked towards the sound.  
  
It wasn't good. Buzzing usually wasn't.  
  
As his eyes gazed upward he looked upon a couple small masses of round and black structures within the tree's branches and on the walls. At first glance he had figured they were strange fungi or barnacles. That's how they appeared in structure at any rate. He had been wrong on both guesses-they were bee hives. Or rather..wasp hives. And the wasps were very..very large.  
  
"Get down, you idiot!" Fox declared, dashing out to crush Slippy down against one of the tree roots. Slippy gasped as his breath was forced from him by the accidental hit to the stomach. The wasp that had angrily dove at the frog hovered there a small distance away from them, it's long black abdomen swaying with its movement. These things were the biggest bugs Fox had personally ever seen. They were about the size of his own head, and all black aside from a small loop of yellow around the end of their bodies.  
  
"Wh-at...isss.?" Slippy managed to get out. Fox didn't have to answer because, as the wasps continued to seemingly pour from the hives, he soon caught sight of the reason behind Fox's maneuvers.  
  
Instinctively Fox rounded, still shielding his friend, and began to shoot at the wasps charging them. Once or twice he got bashed in the side by one of their body slams, but luckily their immense stingers did nothing but brush the tips of his fur. They weren't immune to his shot, and some tumbled down onto the ground writhing with one or two blasts.  
  
The only problem was that they were so damned numerous and they were coming in faster than he could shoot. Just when he thought he would have to go ballistic, risking wounds or not, a couple of the wasps exploded right in front of his face. It wasn't terribly pleasant, mind you, as the insect juices happened to spatter over his clothes and body just a tad. Blinking at this disgustedly he looked out to see what had caused it.  
  
The wasps were reeling and turning their attentions from the two pilots as some other form made for their hives. They retaliated furiously on the attacker and began to barrage it with body slams and stings. Hearing the clanging of their failings, Fox got a good glimpse of this other figure. It looked to be a robot of some sorts.. Something humanoid and clad in broad shining armor.  
  
He watched, absently helping Slippy gain his bearings, as the newcomer raised the arm blaster they possessed and set fire to the surrounding hives. They shrunk back like shriveled grapes with the heat. Once this had been done, their savior turned and bounded with eerie agility (especially for what looked like a great amount of heavy metal bearing down on them) to begin taking out the remaining insects.  
  
As numerous as they still were, the newcomer was a brilliant shot, and quick with efficiency. Fox composed himself and helped out, Slippy hanging back behind him, and began to take out the remaining bugs as well. Once the room was littered with bug corpses and leftovers, he held his blaster ready.  
  
With the danger no longer an issue, the armored one turned with a clank of footsteps to face the two. Fox gave the once over with a flicker of his eyes as his tail flicked behind him.  
  
"You're a fine shot, but.," he sputtered, still spattered with bug remnants. "Awfully messy about it."  
  
"You're messy.," replied Samus. "And a bit of an awful shot. You always go for the hive first with War Wasps."  
  
"Well, excuse me. It's not like I'm native to this insane planet," he replied, still holding his gun at ready if this figure decided to get hostile-as had everything else lately.  
  
"I didn't think so," she replied. "What with the lacking tactics and all."  
  
"Hey, I'm fine in most territories. But you can't stick me on hot coals and expect me to dance the first time," Fox replied, ears twitching. He didn't very much care for being told he was lacking anything.  
  
"There's nothing wrong with not knowing what's not common knowledge," Samus replied, holding up her one hand. "No need to be testy with me, furball." Fox narrowed his eyes.  
"And what business do you have here?" he asked.  
  
"I'm bailing you out of an otherwise nasty situation. You stay here much longer just wandering around and you'll be no more than a carcass by daybreak."  
  
"Carcass?" Slippy finally spoke, then tugged at Fox's vest, whispering, "Fox, I don't wanna be a carcass.!" Fox nudged hid elbow back to make Slippy let go without taking his eyes off the Hunter.  
  
"What if we don't need bailing, eh? We were just on the way back to our ships, actually," Fox said calmly with a nod.  
  
"Oh, you need bailing, and I need money."  
  
"I'm not paying you to do something I can do myself," Fox said flatly, his ears flattening with the tone.  
  
"You can take the stealth cloaking off your ship?" she asked.  
  
"Stealth..? I don't have. You didn't cloak my ship!"  
  
"Sure, I did. It's no good to leave your vehicle in strange territories where everyone can see or steal it.. But if you don't want to be proper, I can always just leave it as is." Fox bit his tongue inside his mouth, glancing back at Slippy. The frog shook his head and shrugged, wordlessly saying he didn't have a way to find cloaked-or otherwise invisible-ships. The Starfox leader weighed his options here.  
  
Option one: he could deny everything to this walking metal heap and attempt to find the ship on his own. It was invisible, not gone. He remembered where he parked, right? By the rock.. Yeah, that helped.  
  
Option two: he could BUY the assistance of this increasingly rude and frustrating person, get off the planet and back to his ship with little or no trouble besides lightening his own pockets.  
  
He didn't like empty pockets.  
  
Grr.  
  
"I don't have anything on me right now," he said finally. "I'd have to pay you at the base." Truthfully, Fox never left home without at least some cash to his disposal, but IT didn't have to know that. By this point all the pilot knew about this person was they were a bit arrogant and giving him a lot of trouble. The muffling of the voice in the suit and the structure of the armor gave no hint to him that he was conversing with a female. If he had known he might have tried to turn on the charm... if he didn't already feel somewhat agitated. Regardless, Samus seemed to be considering his offer.  
  
"Alright. I'll take you back to your ship..and then I'll follow you to your base."  
  
"Are you sure.?" Slippy spoke up again. "It's really far ou-owww, Fox!" Fox waved a hand at him signaling for him to just keep his mouth shut. He made a couple more quick gestures for 'We'll get off this planet and then lead them out somewhere and lose them'. Slippy seemed to understand so Fox turned back to Samus.  
  
"Sounds great. Now let's get off this insane rock." 


	4. Losing Touch

CHAPTER 4: LOSING TOUCH  
  
Samus seemed to know the planet near inside and out as she led Fox and Slippy back to their similar landing grounds. Not once did she have to stop and consider whether a door or direction was the right one. Fox noted this and began to wonder what sort of connection this rogue had with the planet to know it so well. No doubt they had been here before. Was he in the middle of a scam artists' scheme?  
  
They made it back to their ships easily enough, taking less traveled paths that Samus knew. These paths were littered only with peaceful native creatures that could be dangerous, but only when threatened. Once they reached the landing space, Slippy branched off from Samus and Fox to his own ship while the other two went for Fox's Arwing.  
  
"Alright," Fox said casually, gesturing with a hand. "Time to make like a magician." Samus, without a word or two of response, lifted her arm cannon and tapped a panel on it. With a disorienting quiver of space the ship appeared next to where they stood. Fox gave an inaudible breath of relief. He had his ship available-now all he had to do was get up into the wide-open blackness of space and ditch the walking metal biped. "Good. Now just give me a minute and we'll head out." Samus nodded.  
  
Fox turned and headed over to where Slippy was collecting his precious tools and belongings from the half sunken ship. Truthfully, he looked a little forlorn about it.  
  
"Don't worry about it, Slip. Once we get your ship back to the Great Fox I'm sure it can be fixed up," he assured his friend. Glancing back at where Samus was he saw she was busy with her own ship and looked back to Slippy, leaning in to speak quietly. "I'm going to tow the ship back. But we're going to have to do some special maneuvering to lose our savior here."  
  
"Why exactly do you wanna ditch him anyway?" Slippy asked, personally assuming this metal clad knight was a male. Voice tones alone meant nothing to him---after all, he had one of the squeakiest voices in the world and he was still male. "He helped us out back there and just got us out here with less trouble than we would have had."  
  
"There's too much fishy about all this, Slip," Fox replied. "We wander into a strange area, get attacked, and suddenly this hero appears at just the right time? Not to mention he knows way too much about the planet for my liking. Who's to say that he doesn't just wait for people to fall into this trap and then make his money off of forcing them to use his services?"  
  
"I guess it is a little weird that he was right nearby. But still, he DID help us out."  
  
"Ah, forget that. We could have eventually helped ourselves out no trouble. There's too many awkward ends here, Slip. For all we know he could have been bio-engineering those creepy little energy suckers."  
  
"You're just angry because he cloaked your ship. It really made sense, though, you know. Natives CAN steal foreign technology," Slippy replied, nodding. Fox flattened his ears down at this and frowned, saying nothing. "Besides," Slippy continued. "He's interesting. I mean, that armor is awesome. It's like nothing I've ever seen.it lets him move so fast! That and I wouldn't mind getting a good look at that ship of his."  
  
"Your priorities are a little weird sometimes, buddy," Fox said finally. Slippy shrugged.  
  
"I'll pay him if you don't want to. I mean, I think it's worth it."  
  
"No!" Fox said, a little louder than he meant to. His ears perked and he looked to see if Samus had heard. She was sitting atop her hovering ship, looking in their direction in a thoughtful, waiting position. Fox looked back to Slippy. "We don't pay for services, we GET PAID for services. You nor I have the extra funds to be shoveling out to some stranger. You know we haven't had a new job in a while. Our funds are starting to wane."  
  
"I guess so. I just don't like being terribly ungrateful.."  
  
"Right. You just want to learn more about that ship, don't you.." The phrase was a statement rather than a question. It was Slippy's turn to look a little sour. Touche`.  
  
"We'll do whatever you want, Fox. You're the leader," he finally said with a frustrated sigh, hoisting up his things to bounce them over to Fox's cargo panel in his Arwing. Fox followed, satisfied with that, and went to retrieve his tow cables from the ship.  
  
Rounding to the back near the thrusters, he opened a panel and pulled out a couple claw like structures. Taking them over to the back of Slippy's ship that wasn't submerged in water, he hooked them onto two thin cylindars over a couple rear indentations. Once hooked, he went back to his ship and powered it up. With power flowing freely, the connectors jumped to life and a bluish shock of energy ran between his ship and his comrade's.  
  
"I hate riding dual..," Slippy complained as he squished in behind Fox's seat. He'd only had to do this once before when they were short of ships. It wasn't terribly pleasant, and he hoped it would be a short ride. (This reference actually happened in the old Nintendo Power Starfox Comics ( Fara and Fox snatched the Arwings and so they were short one ship. Slippy had to ride with Peppy.)  
  
"I'll follow you out," Samus said, rising to head for the entrance to her own ship.  
  
"Yeah!" Fox yelled out as she lowered into it. ".right." Once off the ground, the Arwing lifted Slippy's ship out of the water. The energy transmitted to the ship gave it enough charge to fly behind Fox's, so as not to be just a hunk of dead weight.  
  
"My poor baby," Slippy pouted, watching it drip water. A signal arose on Fox's panel and he tapped the controls to open communication. Samus' helmeted visage looked in at him as the viewscreen popped up.  
  
"I'm ready when you are, fuzzy."  
  
"Don't call me that!" Fox replied and then instantly calmed himself. "My NAME is Fox McCloud."  
  
"Samus Aran. Pleasure," she replied. "Lead the way, Fuzzums." Fox flattened his ears at this and decided to just let it go. He wouldn't have to deal with it much longer anyway. Closing the communication, he began to head up into the outer atmosphere.  
  
"Aran. That name sounds kinda familiar. Recognize it from anythin', Fox?" Slippy asked casually.  
  
"No," Fox said bluntly. He wasn't sure really. Remembering names was the last thing he was thinking of at the moment.  
  
Breaking into the star studded blackness of space, Fox glanced around to make sure he knew where Samus was. Her ship was easy enough to spot, being a giant hunk of orange in the middle of pitch black. Turning his ship in the direction of his own system, he began to pilot along, Samus following him not too far behind. It was going to take some skillful piloting to lose this one, he thought, and he was just the one to do it.  
  
Now, Fox had for a moment considered that MAYBE he shouldn't be so tight about his money.. MAYBE he was overreacting about having to pay someone else to help him out. But damnit, if there was anything that got to him it was being treated like a kid-an inferior. There was just no forgiving that sometimes.  
  
Now as he piloted along, he made sure to make a few sharp turns, awkward dips, and maneuvers around asteroid filled areas. He had hoped that some of these sporadic movements and obstacles would discourage the hunter behind him and make them drop back and forget their promise of a fee. Sadly... it wasn't working.  
  
"He's still there," Slippy said.  
  
"I know.," Fox said under his breath. It was time for some serious thinking. If he couldn't lose her by mere fancy flying. then perhaps he could blind her so he had a better chance of getting a head start. His ears twitched a bit as he pondered his options. There wasn't much on board that he could use for that purpose.. A thought occurred to him then. The power cables trailing behind him holding Slippy's ship could easily scramble a ship's visability abilities if they struck it head on. They were a constant flow of energy. Disengaging them often sent out a spurt of erratic flow, which led to extra safety measures when handling them. It was common knowledge that the towing ship had to be powered down for at least 20 minutes before you could safely unhook the cables.  
  
A smirk crawled over his lips and his hand wandered over the controls on his main panel. Slippy watched him.  
  
"Fox, what are you.?"  
  
"Hold on, Slip. This could be kind of bumpy." With one or two hits of switches, one of the cables holding the frog's ship broke loose. The energy comprised "wire" whirled and gave a crack, somewhat like a recoiling whip. This sent out a shockwave of released energy that crashed into the front of Samus' trailing ship.  
  
"Fox!" Slippy exclaimed. Fox ignored this and glanced back quickly to make sure Samus' ship had indeed been hit, and then he floored it.  
  
He sped along for quite a ways until he hit the "border" of the Lylat system, where he slowed and finally looked back. He smiled fangily-no Samus. She hadn't been able to follow. Slippy began to berate him for throwing his ship around so carelessly, but Fox took it and reassured him everything would be fine. .. It was all good now.  
  
* * * * * *  
  
Samus calmly waited for her ship's systems to clear of the energy build up. Through the visor of her helmet she stared blandly out into space as it flickered into view again. She had seen this coming a mile or more away. Anyone with half a wit would have known that Fox had been trying to lose them from his awkward flying patterns. The fact that the cable broke could have been a fluke.. It COULD have been caused from his jerking around..but she seriously doubted it.  
  
Still, she had no reason to be upset. She would get her well-earned pay regardless.  
  
When she was sure the ship's systems were entirely free of build up, she pulled up a window. Typing in a couple minor details, Samus opened up a tracking window. The starred map was as still as the universe it represented, all save the small blinking dot heading through the Lylat system.  
  
Samus smiled to herself. Her intuitions had served her well yet again. After all..what kind of cloaking system didn't totally hook into a ship's interface anyway? 


	5. Twist N' Turn

CHAPTER 5: TWIST N' TURN  
  
The Great Fox loomed into view before Fox's Arwing which was currently towing Slippy's ship. Fox had pretty much kicked back the rest of the way there, letting the ship go auto-pilot while he cranked up some music. He felt totally at peace right now. He had gotten Slippy and the second half of the shipment back into space and to the main ship without any real problems. Yep, it was all smooth sailing.  
  
Hailing Peppy once he neared their headquarters, he calmly piloted both ships into the docking bay that opened up. The elder Fox team member met them once the hatch had closed, giving a look over the towing cables and assessing the situation.  
  
"Did something happen?" he asked, adjusting his specs with the other hand behind his back. (Just for reference this takes place after Starfox Adventures-hence Peppy is a bit aged).  
  
"Ah, yeah," Fox said, once he had slipped out of the Arwing to greet the hare. "Slippy's ship had a malfunction so I had to tow him off a nearby planet. No big deal. We still got the supplies in safe and sound."  
  
"I hear one of your tow cables broke.," Peppy said, rubbing his chin and looking back to Fox. Fox's ears perked and his tail twitched again.  
  
"Who told you that? I mean.it did happen but..," he said glancing back. Slippy was still trying to get out of where he'd wedged himself in Fox's ship. No one else had known about the cable incident besides..  
  
"Oh, it's the funniest thing," the hare continued, chuckling with a genuine smile. "Just when were starting to get worried about you, we got this transmission."  
  
"...You're kidding."  
  
"Well, I haven't even told you the exciting part. The transmission was from a well known bounty hunter..told us you were having some troubles. But with some assistance you were well on your way," he continued. "I believe her name was-"  
  
"Samus Aran?" Fox said bluntly, then he shook his head. "Wait a minute..? Her?"  
  
"Well, yes. The young lady is on the ship as we speak. After she told us how she had helped you and told us how you planned to pay her back we decided to let her in to wait for you."  
  
Fox stared at Peppy for a moment. His mind was reeling. He HADN'T evaded Samus. Samus was here. She had tracked him. And she was a SHE?  
  
"Where is .she?" he finally asked, just as Peppy was starting to wonder what was up with him. He was making some pretty odd expressions in his thoughtful silence.  
  
"Oh, she's in the dining area. Figured it was only right to offer her a drink and all."  
  
"Right," Fox said, brushing past Peppy. "I'll be right back." The hare looked after him cooly.  
  
"He needs a day off. Poor junior is all stressed out."  
  
The dining room doors gave a light woosh as Fox stepped through them, his tail swaying lightly behind his now composed form. He wasn't sure exactly how he was going to handle this turn of events, but he figured all he could do was confront this bounty hunter and wing it-so to speak.  
  
The dining area was fairly small since it was only the few of the Starfox Team on board. There wasn't much to it besides a couple tables and a bar area with a robotic bartender. Samus sat at one of the seats there in her hulking power suit. What she lacked now, however, was her helmet which, up to now, had made her pretty much sexless.  
  
She was a blonde. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail at the back of her head and its lengths rolled down the back of her suit. For being crammed in such a small space it looked very well taken care of and shone in the lighting of the dining room. She apparently hadn't ordered anything and was sitting in the room simply waiting. Waiting for himself, Fox supposed.  
  
As he approached her she turned to look at him, a few stray blondes strands from her hairline brushing her cheeks and floating over striking blue eyes. Fox came up and stood in front of the barstool beside hers and regarded her under his furry brows for a moment. She looked back at him, a smirk quirking at her lips for obvious reasons.  
  
With a slight grunt Fox rested a hand on the bar and hoisted himself up on the seat. Again the two looked at each other silently. Fox still contemplated the best thing to say right now, though his mind was still registering all this information of having been beaten and ..her being female. He wasn't sure why this surprised him so much. it just did. In a way he had half expected her to be some cyborg or maybe even a full robot. The armor was that unique looking.  
  
"Don't take it too hard. You aren't the first one who's tried to get out of paying me," Samus finally said, breaking the silence that seemed to cloud up aside from the robot bartender's hustle and bustle.  
  
"I'm not taking anything hard," Fox immediately responded. "How did you-"  
  
"The cloaking device? I merely disengaged it on your ship. I didn't actually remove it. And I can track any of my own devices from my ship," she explained simply. Fox hummed and thought about this a moment. Leaning his head back and closing his eyes he gave a breath and then let his head hang forward as he held out a gloved hand. "What?"  
  
"Just shake my hand. Don't make me explain," he said, head still bowed, tone stiff. Samus shrugged and did as he asked. Fox felt a little better. He had silently acknowledged that he'd been outdone in this particular race. At least she wasn't forcing him to admit it aloud. "So tell me-and don't jerk me around---how did you know where to go on that planet?"  
  
"Tallon IV," Samus replied. "I tracked a crashed space frigate there once. It's a long story but I had to scour the surface of the planet in order to stop this race known as Space Pirates."  
  
"Space Pirates?" Fox questioned, raising a brow. "That sounds familiar."  
  
"I wouldn't be surprised if you'd heard of them. They're a rather arrogant race that constantly tries to become superior to all others. On Tallon IV they attempted to bio engineer and augment various lifeforms by infusing them with Phazon. It's a very radioactive substance."  
  
"And you succeeded.?" he asked, tilting his head.  
  
"I succeeded in stopping their research, yes."  
  
"Then what are those creatures still doing there?"  
  
"Which?"  
  
"The ones that tried to suck the life outta me." Samus pondered this but it only took a moment before she realized what he meant.  
  
"Metroids.," she replied. "They feed off of the energy of other beings. When the Space Pirates crashed on Tallon IV they had many foreign species on their ship. They took what had survived to their labs. Once I ceased the research the Metroids spawned and became native to the planet."  
  
"Don't you think you should have killed them while they were still wandering around in small numbers?"  
  
"Not necessarily. Metroids are just as natural as any other organism living there. They didn't cause a huge upset to the ecosystems..and no civilization beyond the late Chozo has inhabited the planet otherwise," she explained. Fox was just about to question about these "Chozo" when Samus spoke up again. "You were bit by a Metroid?"  
  
"Yeah, sorta. It got its teeth down into my back but the wounds don't appear very serious. I only bled a little." He halfway turned to check and see if the wounds still stung, but they didn't seem to be. Looking back at Samus he wondered at the serious expression that had crossed her features. "What?"  
  
"Metroids excrete a very fine paralyzing venom from their talons to subdue their prey faster. You should really get it out of your system, or else get an antidote for it."  
  
"Well, where am I going to get an antidote-I don't know anyone who knows--- " He stopped gesturing and looked at her. "..Wait a minute."  
  
"Hm?"  
  
"This is a con, isn't it. You're telling me this so I'll buy some sort of 'antidote' from you, aren't you?" he accused.  
  
"Well, I won't deny that I have an antidote. But I never conned you into anything. If you want your body to slowly lose all feeling that's fine with me. It won't KILL you. I guess it's okay as long as you don't mind your muscles becoming eternal puddles of jelly," she replied, lifting her hands innocently.  
  
"We're already paying for your services! Isn't that enough!" Fox declared.  
  
"You know, Fox. You're the one who offered to buy it from me. I never said a thing about having to pay me for an antidote."  
  
"Er.," Fox faltered, his ears falling to either side. Samus smiled charmingly and patted him on the shoulder.  
  
"There, there, fuzzums. I'll give you a discount price for being so generous." With that, she rose from her seat, packing up her helmet. She gave him a wave before exiting the room. "I'll be at my ship whenever you're ready!"  
  
Fox watched her go, his body totally stiff for a moment. Finally, he slumped back into the chair and sighed, resting his head in a hand. She was a crafty one for sure.. Though what irritated Fox wasn't the fact that she had twisted everything he said around and made it work out for herself, her keen wit and finesse..  
  
...it was the fact he was impressed by it. 


	6. Distress Signal

CHAPTER 6: DISTRESS SIGNAL  
  
"Ehhhh."  
  
"Problem?" Samus asked as she pulled back the little round mechanism from Fox's forearm. She had just injected the so-called "antidote" for the Metroid's venom into his body. Needless to say, Fox was a little wary about this substance even before he saw her withdraw it in a rather fancy looking case from her ship. Things that were too convenient were just...too convenient for him to trust fully. Still, he was almost sure he was starting to feel a little numb in the tips of his fingers and toes - so he figured he'd take this one chance.  
  
"No..," he replied to her question, rubbing the after-feeling from his arm. Fox wasn't crazy about needles. Even these more finely tuned methods of injection still gave him the willies. Just like the Metroid experience, having things digging into his flesh was not something he was overjoyed about feeling.  
  
"That aught to be good, then," she said, placing her tools back in the small intricate case with the elixir she had used on him. Grasping the handles on the container, she placed it back into the storage compartment near the rear end of her ship.  
  
"Miss Aran!" came Peppy's somewhat raspy voice then as he entered the dock, waving. "We've transferred your fee. Everything should be in order." He gave a small, polite, harish smile.  
  
"Splendid," Samus replied, closing the compartment with a thick clunk noise.  
  
"Mpmpmh..," Fox mumbled at this remark.  
  
"Pardon?" Samus seemed to have overheard.  
  
"Nothing," Fox replied, giving a foxy grin as if nothing was bothering him at all. The blonde bounty hunter gave him a slightly smirky response and turned to mount her ship. Some people were rather amusing when you ruffled their feathers a bit.or fur rather in this particular case.  
  
"Haaa~," Slippy declared shrilly as he hopped into the room with a box containing a bunch of his own gadgets. "Don't tell me you're leaving already, Miss Aran!? I have so many questions!" Samus was already putting her helmet back on and standing on the platform to head into her ship.  
  
"Sorry, Froggy. We'll have to save that for another day," she said with a small wave before the platform lowered her into the bulky vessel. Slippy's expression seemed to melt with disappointment as he watched her do so. Fox glanced at the ship in such a manner that his face seemed to say 'Good riddance'. He and his fellow Starfox teammates turned and entered the interior of the ship so that the docking bay could be opened for Samus' exit. Once the bay doors were open, the bounty hunter jetted out of the ship as if she had some sort of engagement she was late for.  
  
"She seems in an awful hurry," Peppy commented as he stood in front of the window looking out towards the now empty docking bay as the doors closed. "I don't think I was ever so reckless." He chuckled to himself, seemingly amused. "Though I can say it does remind me of a certain someone I know."  
  
"Please, Peppy. Don't start.," Fox replied, his tail flicking to the side as he raised a hand. Turning to head down the hall his thoughts were disrupted by an announcement from the Great Fox's computer that there was a transmission being sent. Jogging down to the main control room, followed by Slippy and Peppy, he wondered if this was a message from General Pepper. That would be nice. While he wasn't terribly fond of Pepper himself sometimes, any jobs he had to offer were more than welcome - provided the client was willing to pay their fee that is.  
  
As they entered, Slippy hopped over to receive the transmission that was coming through. Sadly, no holographic head of General Pepper's showed up. In fact there was no picture or sound at all.  
  
"Fox, it's a distress signal," Slippy finally concluded upon discovering what type of signal it was. "From a location not too far from here it seems!"  
  
Fox hummed to himself and scratched the back of his head. Great. A distress signal. Translated: people wanting/needing help who quite possible can/won't pay for it. Of course, he wasn't totally stone cold about helping out people..he just liked it better when he got rewarded for it.  
  
"Where is it, Slippy?" he finally asked. Slippy seemed happy that his response had been positive and turned to check.  
  
"Just a quadrant or so east from our current location."  
  
"How lucky for those folks we happened to be in the right place at the right time," Peppy said, seating himself in his own designated chair.  
  
"Yeah, guess so," Fox replied. "Alright. Ready up my Arwing and I'll go check it out."  
  
* * * * * *  
  
It felt nice just to get out in his ship again, Fox found. The depths of space themselves were rather calming at times when his day had been unpleasant. Of course, when he thought about it, they weren't too unpleasant. Certainly, he didn't appreciate Samus Aran's attitude or manipulative qualities..but he did (secretly) enjoy running into people who were a match for his own skills and wit. It was a sort of love for rivalry, he figured. He recalled that he used to have that sort of rivalry with Falco a long time ago when they were still training together. Falco, as of late, however, had taken it upon himself to go off on his own. Fox hadn't heard from him for a long time.  
  
Samus had a mischievious look to her - he decided. In her eyes and the way she smirked there was something challenging, vibrant, and almost playful. Fox shook his head mildly to clear it of those images. Best not to think of her.it. Best not to think of IT. The whole day would just have to be wiped away. He had a job he was supposed to be doing - no time to get intrigued by some female's blue.blue eyes.  
  
Fox smacked himself in the side of the head angrily.  
  
When he looked back up he caught glimpse of the distress signal's source. It seemed like some derelict space station that had run into some bad times. A few areas of it seemed to have taken some hits by a rather powerful shot. Glancing around as far as he could see and scanning the area, however, he didn't take notice of anything big enough to make such damage. It seemed whatever had attacked the place was long gone. All that was left was the giant hunk of floating metal pieces and a few bits of space junk left over from the one sided battle.  
  
Zooming in he came to the docking area that seemed to still be in working order, thankfully. The doors opened automatically to the appearance of his ship and closed once he had docked. He opened the cockpit and hopped out, making sure to take his blaster with him close at hand. Walking through the smaller double doors into the main hallway, he surveyed the area. It had that strange unsettling feel about it already. When things are too quiet except for the crackle of broken machinery and wires. Shadows flickered on the walls with sparks and half functioning lighting.  
  
His fur stood on end for a moment at the chill in the place until he shook it off and began cautiously venturing down the hall. Someone had sent a distress call.so someone still had to be alive in this place, and so help him Fox was going to find them.  
  
He stepped around a couple dead forms in the hallway and veered his gaze away from them. Dead people weren't good in any situation, but there was nothing he could do about it but take it as a warning to be careful. He pulled his blaster from his belt into his readied hand for good measure.  
  
As much as he might have liked to call out "hello? Is anyone there?", Fox restrained himself. Doing that sort of thing in questionable places such as this could be the worst mistake. For one, something you might not want to answer probably will. For two, most the time the victim wouldn't answer anyway unless they knew you weren't threatening.  
  
He slowed his steps at a peculiar smell near an automatic door that was frozen into a partially open state. Sidestepping a bit with his back to the wall he turned to peek in. From what he could see amongst the shadows and dim lighting it looked like a bunch of tiny creatures feeding on a mess of corpses in the room. It stunk the high heaven. Fox held his breath a moment and pulled back. Best not to disturb the little buggers as long as they left him alone.  
  
Strangely enough at this thought there came a light whooshing noise and the sound of an explosion in that very room. A blast of light emerged from the crack in the door and Fox braced himself as the room rocked.  
  
"What in the-?" he questioned no one in particular when the blinding light had cleared. As he turned to look back in the room, something round and shiny came flying out through the hole and skidded across the floor and wall down the way he had come. Fox blinked once or twice to check his vision and looked back in the room first - all the creatures had been incinerated. Narrowing his furry brows he made for the metallic sphere to find out what the hell it was.  
  
It wasn't too hard to track as it made a light skidding noise of metal on metal as it rolled along. Fox kept his distance warily and slowed as the sphere did. It was peculiar for a moment as it appeared to be looking around or contemplating which direction it planned to take, and eventually rolled into an open doorway. Using the opportunity to catch up, Fox quietly came to the door and peeked in.  
  
It seemed some of the control panels in this main room were still somewhat functioning as the screens still glowed with life. His eyes were tugged from this brief view as the small sphere rolled along in front of the control panels and suddenly warped into a different form.  
  
"What the hell??" Fox couldn't keep himself from saying aloud as he whirled and stepped into the room. The once-been sphere, now full armored Samus, turned and looked at him from the panel. Her eyes narrowed a bit behind the visor of her helmet.  
  
"What are you doing here?" she asked before turning to access the panel.  
  
"What..?" Fox asked incredulously, approaching her. "What are YOU doing here is more like it!"  
  
"What do you mean?" Samus replied. "I'm answering a distress call! Did you send it?"  
  
"No. Did you?" he returned the question. She shook her head simply. "I thought you were out of this part of the galaxy by now the way you went streaking out."  
  
"I got the distress call and wanted to get out and find it.," she said, scanning through the computer best she could. "So eager to get rid of me, then, fuzzums?"  
  
"Don't call me that!" Fox declared and then composed himself. "Listen. I received the same distress call and decided to check it out."  
  
"Oh? How thoughtful of you."  
  
"I didn't expect you to be here."  
  
"My ship is right outside, didn't you see it?"  
  
"Oh, I must have picked it up as a piece of space trash," he said staley, coming to the panel himself. Samus knawed her tongue a bit at this. Touche` Foxy. "Well, have you found anyone, bounty hunter?"  
  
"Strangely, no," she replied, letting her tone turn back into a business one. "I've covered at least half the station and most of the electronics seemed to be haywire. This is the first panel that I've seen that would even be able to send a signal like that." Fox's ears perked at this.  
  
"Don't suppose the computers might have sent a signal automatically when they read low life signals, do you?" he asked, returning to business as well.  
  
"That could be so. But I get this strange feeling it's not the case." Fox agreed, feeling the same sort of eerie nature of the whole thing, but he didn't say anything about it. Samus shook her head again. "I can't even find an identity of who might have sent the signal. or when."  
  
"This station looks pretty beat up.. Don't you suppose-"  
  
"That the signal should have been sent before it got this bad?" she finished his thought. "That's what bothers me. I've been picking up little or no life signs on this place. What I've found are small scavengers, though, not the crew or civilians. People in distress usually call for help before they're near death. Unless the people on this station were attacked so forcefully they couldn't get to their systems in time."  
  
"That's assuming they were boarded.," Fox added, leaning against the edge of the panel and assuming a thoughtful pose. "Attacked from the outside and then boarded later?" He looked to Samus.  
  
"Sounds plausible from the scene here..," she said. "But I still don't see why that wouldn't have left enough time to send the signal earlier. And if it was sent during the attack then there should be some signs of the invader."  
  
"No visible ship outside.."  
  
"Seemingly no one inside.." The two paused in silent thought a moment. Their trains were suddenly derailed, though as a frightful thumping began in the hall - like something large and heavy was heading towards their door.  
  
Both Fox and Samus looked up, getting ready to go into defensive mode when the door was forced the rest of the way open by a clawed hand. Fox narrowed his eyes again, though the feeling of surprise stuck with him a moment.  
  
"You-? How can you?!" he finally uttered as the large form filled the doorway.  
  
"Hey!" Samus declared, causing Fox to jump just a tad. "I know you! There's a rather large bounty on your scaley hide!!" Fox looked at Samus a bit bewildered that she recognized the figure looming before them.  
  
"How do you-?"  
  
"Oh, he's on a rather rewarding wanted list," she mentioned, not taking her eyes off the door. Fox was almost certain she was smiling at this encounter.  
  
"Indeed," growled the intruder with a large, toothy grin. "General Scales is not so easily defeated! Now that Andross has lost control of me I can do as I please. And I think it's about time I skinned myself a Fox for all the trouble he's caused me. If it means I'll have to take out a pesky bounty hunter in the process all the better!"  
  
He began to laugh lowly and Samus and Fox glanced at each other as they both poised their weapons to fight.  
  
(Note to readers: Okay, before you start rolling your eyes hear me out. I think General Scales was highly underused in Starfox Adventures. While he had potential to be a rather villainy villain his chance at stardom kind of got jacked by Andross. I mean come on. You don't even get to fight the poor guy! All that evilness for nothing. geez) 


	7. When times are tough

The light of a sinking sun found itself half dimmed as it sank slowly behind a deep blue horizon. The gentle sound of ocean water stroking white, soft sand filled Fox's ears as he lay there. Everything was blurry, but the sight of a sunset was unmistakable – the rushing sounds and colors rather soothing to his body and mind. He gave a light sigh in his chest when he soon became aware of a presence standing near the shoreline not too far away. Long hair flowed in the ocean breeze, the fading light accenting the curvature of a female body.  
  
"Hmn.......?" he heard himself mutter, though it wasn't clear if he said it with his mouth or mind. The woman standing across the way was human, he could tell, as she looked back over her shoulder at him. His vision wavered a moment, appearing like the wavy distance of a hot Sahara.  
  
"Fox." Came the female voice, though it seemed to echo around him rather than come from the slowly approaching Samus ahead. Yes, it was Samus, he decided once the light had caught the blonde of her hair and the blue of her eyes had settled on him. She looked a lot smaller without that metal getup of hers. She was still tall and fairly well shaped in many aspects – toned with battle and bodily exercise.  
  
He was startled from his admiration as her form seemed to speed forward and was suddenly peering over him. Her voice was louder and she grasped his shoulders. He suddenly became aware he was being shaken.  
  
"Fox! Damnit, you furball, wake up!!" Fox cringed at this, feeling his head reel as everything went black. A sharp pain shot through the back of his head before he opened his eyes and looked clearly upon the bounty hunter now. But there was no beach.... No calming breeze...... She didn't look pleased. It had been an illusion. "For crying out loud are you even in there??"  
"Yes, would you stop shaking me! My head hurts!" Samus released his shoulders and he leaned back on an arm where he now sat, rubbing the back of his head with the other. Samus rose and paced a bit in front of him. Indeed, she was not clad in her bulky armor it seemed as she strutted along in what could only be described as a black sort of bikini with a top that came up fully around her neck. The only other thing she wore was a pair of thin space boots.  
  
Looking around, Fox realized he would have much preferred the beach to where they actually were. It was dark and dank. They seemed to be in a large metal squared off room with no windows and one very dim, half- functioning light.  
  
"What happened?" he murmured, rubbing his head again. A disgruntled Samus huffed and leaned against the fore wall by the door, crossing her arms.  
  
"I don't suppose after a blow that like it'd come back to you all at once, eh?" she said, her features half shadowed in the lack of light beneath her hair.  
  
"What blow? Is that why my head hurts?" He moved to get up slowly.  
  
"Well, if you insist on storytime..."  
  
-----Samus POV------  
  
Self-designated General Scales had just entered the room where you and I were trying to figure out what had sent that distress signal from the space station. He damn near filled the entire doorway with his form and caused a bit of a rumble trying to press through. Well, he managed, and decided to get rough from the get go.  
  
Seems he has some sort of agenda with you – but I'm not asking to hear that, so don't bother explaining. At any rate, he headed for you first and being the spry little furry you appear to be, you managed to dodge his slow ass pretty easy. Well, this pissed him off of course... So while he's rip roaring mad over there I power up my arm cannon and let a charged missile fly at him. Hit's him smack in the side of the face, starts burning his left eye. By this point he's thrashing around, clawing at it and you damn near get taken out by his tail.  
  
So you get up from where you got bumped down and start going for his gut with your blaster. I could see that. Soft spots always tend to be in the stomach area, right? Well, he gets a sense for where the shot is coming from and charges right for you, blindly, ya know? I see you evade this barely and take a shot with my grapple beam. You know, it's like using a grappling hook. It get's wrapped around his neck and I'm pulling on it, yelling at you to get around and start pushing him from behind however ya can. I figure we'll get him to slam into the control panel and maybe he'll get a good shock.  
  
By this point the bastard is glaring out his one good eye at me and I know it's no good. He reeled and rammed smack into me, crushing me into the panel and it's my suit that gets the overflow of energy. Things just shorting out everywhere...  
  
------end pov-----  
  
Samus rubbed the corner of her eye near her nose a bit as she hummed, halting the story a moment as if in thought. Fox swished his tail mildly and looked at her, the memories falling back into place for him as he listened to her side.  
  
"Yeah, I remember all the snapping and energy spurts going on...," he recalled lightly, crouching down and resting his paws on his knees.  
  
"Yeah..... I kinda blacked out after that..... Next thing I know I'm in here with you and my suit isn't summoning up like it should..." **  
  
"Oh, so that's why you're without it...," he remarked and bowed his head, eyes shifting to the side. "Well, I remember that far...... By then I was near the door again and was trying to get his attention. ......I think I was yelling anything at him to get him to turn around... you know calling him names and such.."  
  
Samus chuckled, "Oh, is that why I heard 'fossil face' in the middle of all that electrocution. Here I thought my brain was frying." Fox smiled a little toothily and went back to thinking.  
  
"......Strangest thing, though.... Last thing I can recall is seeing him turn around....then I think he let out this really weird growl. It wasn't like the normal dinosaur growl you'd expect. It sounded like it had more than one pitch to it at the same time...." He rubbed a finger against his mouth lightly. "I remember getting intensely dizzy and then... nothing."  
  
"High frequency pitches can trigger strange brain patterns.. Maybe make your ears bleed," Samus hummed, shrugging her shoulders a bit.  
  
"Yeah, that might explain the light headache......"  
  
"What we need to do now is find a way out of here. The scaley bastard is obviously keeping us trapped. Neither of us has any weapons and our situation is just not good in general."  
  
"You're quite the ball of sunshine, aren't you, Blondie?" Fox said, looking up at her.  
  
"Hrmph..," she responded and he chuckled, rising to stand straight again.  
  
"Well, let's see here... Metal on every wall...floor and ceiling..." He began meandering around the small cell, tapping the walls and cocking his ear to listen.  
  
"I've checked the walls ...They're too thick to try ramming through.... And it'd take a long time to scratch through them with your little foxy claws."  
  
"Not so cocky when you're without that suit of yours are ya?" he replied casually. "Take my advice and try working without it more often.... What hinders us here is the lack of light...."  
  
"I do fine with or without my suit, thank you. And why are you feeling so positive all of a sudden? What ace do you have up your sleeve?" she replied, walking over to where he was standing.  
  
"I don't suppose you were conscious before we got thrown in here, huh?"  
  
"No.. I got fried, remember?"  
  
"Well... If I've heard half of what Slippy's ever said to me..." He trailed off and got down on his hands and knees, pressing his ear to the floor. Samus stared down at him, pressing a hand to her hip and waiting to see what he was up to. "Metal is always thickest on the outside of a ship.....and thinner between rooms..." His eyes meandered a bit as he crouched there before getting up. He turned his attentions to the ceiling and then looked at her.  
  
"What?" she asked after a moment.  
  
"I need an ally-oop."  
  
"Huh?" she asked, wrinkling up her nose at this terminology. Fox chuckled. Samus wasn't too much bigger than he was. At this height he was probably about head level with her breasts (not that it was a BAD angle, mind you), but the ceiling was higher than she or he stood.  
  
"I need to get on your shoulders so I can reach the ceiling." Samus glanced up and then tilted her position as if to measure the dual height in her head. With a huff of a breath, she admitted to herself she was out of options and got down. Fox rounded her and clambered up, starting with his legs wrapping around her neck, his paws on her head.  
  
"Awg! Hey watch the hair up there!" Samus squelched as his movement tugged her long tresses. He chuckled to himself and apologized just slightly as she moved carefully to get up, gripping his legs. Once she was standing, he carefully began to shift his legs so he could place his feet there instead and rise up to full height. Samus worked hard to keep them both balanced and gripped his ankles once they were available. "So are you going to tell me what's going on or is it you just like feeling tall?"  
  
"Ha ha," he retorted down and shuffled in his jacket. "You never keep your handiest tools in sight.... And as the frog says – make them as small as possible." He pulled out a short cylander, no longer than an inch and folded it out three times. Fiddling with the tiny buttons on its now visible underbelly, he held it up towards the ceiling. Samus strained just lightly to see what he was doing. "Keep it steady, down there, Blondie. This is hot stuff."  
  
"If the situation were different I would consider that a bad pick up line or something," she mused. Fox chuckled and shook his head, activating the small laser. It made a light hissing noise as it began eating through the ceiling panels.  
  
"Isn't that gonna be a pain to catch when you're done?" the bounty hunter remarked as she watched him.  
  
"Shouldn't be. If you can make a ship lighter in any way, this is where it would be – floors, ceilings, and usually walls. The outer plating is what gets all the real heat... so that's where the weight is."  
  
"Makes sense."  
  
"Yeah. Slippy makes sense on occasion," he smirked, amused at the whole thing. Samus remained quiet as he did his job. Soon there came a crackling noise as the circle he'd cut came loose from the ceiling and he grasped it. Figuring it would be best to push it up rather than drop it and make a racket, he gave a push best he could and shoved the panel aside. "Tada~" he hummed.  
  
"Nice. Now get up there so I can stop looking at your furry butt."  
  
"No one told you to look," he poked back and grasped the edge of the new exit, pulling himself up through the hole. Luckily the room above seemed to be deserted in all the wreckage. They were still in the space station it seemed. He looked down through the hole.  
  
"The coast is clear. Can you get up here or should I go try to unlock the door?"  
  
"I should be fine....just give me a second..." Fox leaned back a bit, peering at her just slightly through the hole. She bounced on her toes and heels for a moment then leapt off the ground once, pressed off the air midway and jumped again, grasping the edge of the hole as she got there.  
  
"Girl's got frog legs!" Fox said, ears perked forward in amazement. Samus chuckled and pulled herself up through the hole carefully.  
  
"Mine look better than that...," she chuckled and placed her hand on his head, rubbing it as if she would muss his hair if he had any. His fur, at any rate, got ruffled as she did so and then stood up.  
  
"Grah! Please do not touch the fur."  
  
"Yeah, yeah... let's just get out of here, eh?"  
  
** In the newly released Japanese metroid manga () Samus seems to have the ability to will her suit away or back on command. 


	8. Phazon Nightmare

"This aught to work just fine...," Fox mentioned as he worked a long strip of rounded metal off a busted doorframe. It stood about a foot taller than he was when he held it up at his side. Samus looked over at him and tilted her head to the side at the image.  
  
"Is that really gonna work for you?" she asked. Certainly any weapon was better than none while in enemy territory, but she wasn't too keen on the idea of him swinging a metal pole around like a maniac. Fox looked back at her, his tail swaying as a smirk crawled over his muzzle.  
  
"You'd be surprised," he replied, spinning the pole between his hands rapidly a few times before putting it back at his side. His time on Dinosaur Planet hadn't been entirely without merit. He was highly skilled in hand to hand combat as it was, and now he was even better with simple weapons such as this. Too bad this rickety metal thing couldn't gain special abilities like Krystal's staff could.  
  
"Whatever works." Samus hummed and decided she should give her suit a try again to see if it was functioning yet. Flexing her fingers absently, there came an inward windy sound and with a flicker of bright light her suit came into being around her like a second skin. Fox blinked mildly at this. Needless to say it was a rather awesome thing to witness. He could just imagine the hay-day Slippy would be having with the mechanics of how it worked and all. "Well, that's a good sign..." She opened the panel on her arm cannon to check statistics of her suit's functions.  
  
"I don't think I'm going to even ask how you did that."  
  
"Good idea. You'd need a very open mind for it." Fox chuckled and stepped over some rubble to head towards the door and take a gander out in the hallway. The hallways were clear and as quiet as they had been when he boarded. There was no clear sign of where Scales had gone.  
  
"Just great.... That peanut brain could be anywhere now..."  
  
"Peanut brain..?"  
  
"...What..? You try coming up with witty names for prehistoric creatures every time!" Samus shook her head and continued working with her suit's systems absently.  
  
"So... I think we should probably try to find out where he is first..," Fox said after a moment, peering out of the door again. "Just have to be really stealthy..."  
  
"No sweat...," Samus replied and curled up with a flicker of light into her morph ball. She bounced up over the rubble and skidded along past him into the hall. Fox blinked at this and quietly went to follow her. How the hell did this woman keep changing shape without busting her spine??? The bounty hunter rolled along quietly a few feet ahead of Fox so that if she chanced to see anything she could warn him and they'd both have a chance to make a run ....or roll...for it.  
  
Fox padded along as quietly as he could, halfway glancing here and there as he walked. This place was such an awful mess. It was hard to even start thinking what Scales had done to the folks who had once run this station. When he looked back he realized the little metallic sphere had stopped in its tracks so he did the same.  
  
Just when he was about to question her why she was just sitting there he was answered by a loud, angry voice coming from a room up ahead. The tone and growl could have only been General Scales... and he certainly didn't sound pleased. Of course, when did he ever?  
  
"Fine..! You can have the girl. I don't care about that! But you must give me your supply of this Phazon...!"  
  
Samus felt her presence jerk within her sphere. Phazon? Someone had Phazon?? Her mind reeled at all the possibilities in every angle and she tried to deny them. Her attentions were snapped back by a strange alien tongue that she, sadly, knew all to well. Pirates. The giant lizard was communicating with the Pirates. And some how, some way, they had Phazon from Tallon IV.  
  
Phazon, she had learned, could be awfully dangerous. Not until she had upgraded her suit to its highest extent was she even able to tread in it. It was a highly radioactive substance that had the ability to drastically mutate and augment various lifeforms when implemented correctly. When she had pursued the Pirates to Tallon IV, they had already begun using the substance to enhance various creatures they had picked up elsewhere. The results were absolutely horrifying. Not only had they managed to make their own kind grow to immense sizes and bulks....but the Phazon's effects on Metroids....  
  
Metroid Prime – a Metroid not only enhanced by Phazon, but outfitted with weapons it had fused into itself, was a nightmare for her. There were times where she still had dreams of the giant black creature rushing at her with it's long, spider-like legs. Well, certainly the creature itself was nothing compared than anything she had fought recently. The Metroid Queen and Mother Brain were on their own little pedistals in Samus' Nightmare Gallery. But what spooked her particularly about Prime was the fact that it had a face...a disturbingly human face....  
  
So the Pirates had, somehow, managed to take some Phazon back into orbit. Had they used any of it already? What about Ridley? They were constantly reviving their leader... could they be using the Phazon for that?? She shuddered.  
  
Fox's ears twitched as he listened to the strange language the Pirates were communicating in. What girl? Were they talking about Samus? And what was this Phazon they kept referring to. He sort of wished Samus wasn't curled into a ball right now – at least then he could be watching her body language to see if she knew anything.  
  
"Yes! Yes! If you bring me the Phazon I will give you the bounty hunter AND I will help you find your boss!" Scales interjected again. A loud bang was heard – he must have slammed his fist down somewhere. Unexpectedly, Samus rolled back over near Fox and then a couple feet back before she returned to a standing position. Fox stepped over and looked up at her, speaking softly.  
  
"What's going on?" he asked. Samus looked over at him through her visor. Her eyes were narrowed, and there was something in them that just....did not look good. He raised his furry brows in questioning.  
  
"We have to get out of here and find that ship before he does...," she said, turning and sneaking along down the hall.  
  
"What ship?" Fox asked, annoyed that she wasn't giving him any information.  
  
"Just be quiet....!" She hissed behind her helmet. "Let's just get out of here and I'll fill you in later......!" With that, she turned and rolled into a ball again to ensure the utmost quiet and skidded along to go find the docking bay. Fox rubbed the back of his head and sighed, following the bouncing ball down the stairs at the end of the hall. 


	9. Partnership

Luckily for the bounty hunter and fox it seemed Scales didn't actually have any troops with him. This made their escape much easier and they reached the docking bay with little trouble. The General, himself, seemed too occupied making deals with the Pirates to even consider that his captives would have the means to slip out of his clutches. Fox clambered into his Arwing while Samus split from him to reach her own ship where she had hidden it.  
  
Once they had both made it into space a good distance from the derelict space station, Fox was relieved to see Samus was attempting to open communication with him. He accepted the signal, determined to find out just what was going on.  
  
"I would have thought you'd have bolted out of here by now," he joked somewhat, hinting at her speedy retreat. Through the communication window and with her visor in the way, Fox could no longer make out her face to see how she reacted.  
  
"Just what business did you have with Scales before?" she asked immediately. Fox tilted his head at this.  
  
"We never had any business. I was called in once to stop him from destroying an entire planet. Why?"  
  
"He can destroy a planet?"  
  
"By himself? No. He just made trouble for the citizens by removing these special stones that held their planet together so it started to bust apart. I had to restore the stones and stop him from terrorizing the planet. Now, really blondie, what's got your feathers ruffled?" he started in. There was no point in going on about how Andross was involved at this point. Hell, Andross was ALWAYS involved. Samus was quiet a moment, checking to see if Fox seemed to her the type who would understand and deserved the information.  
  
"Scales was speaking with the Pirates."  
  
"What? The Space Pirates?"  
  
"Yes. And what's more is they were discussing Phazon."  
  
"Wait, didn't you say that was that radioactive material you found on Tallon?"  
  
"Yes." Fox scratched under his chin.  
  
"So the Pirates have Phazon they're going to give to General Scales...?"  
  
"As far as I can tell. In any perspective it's not good. If that substance comes into contact with anything it can either destroy or augment it to dangerously high levels," Samus said.  
  
"Wait, wait. Augment? Like what kind of augmentations are we talking here?"  
  
"Let's put it this way. Recall the little Metroid that latched onto your back for lunch?"  
  
"Eh.. Yeah."  
  
"Make that about thirty times bigger." Fox blinked and couldn't restrain himself from shuddering just a bit. "Got that? Now that's just making it bigger. Now take that Metroid and fuse all kinds of weapons into it... Make it increasingly intelligent....and make it hungry."  
  
"Okay, okay, I get the point," Fox said, holding up a hand. "So Scales is going to get this Phazon and no doubt use it for some sort of increase in power. That's obviously bad. But what was he talking about when he said something about their 'boss'?" Samus visibly sighed with a light shrug of her shoulders.  
  
"The Pirates have always been nasty pests on their own – but they don't work alone. Their leader is this striking fellow -- Ridley." A new window popped up on Fox's screen with a few stats and the image of a large prehistoric looking bird. He didn't look terribly friendly, either.  
  
"For crying out loud I just can't escape these dinosaurs can I?" Fox leaned his head back against his seat and slapped a hand over his eyes.  
  
"I've defeated Ridley numerous times...but they always find means of resurrecting him in some form or another. What I gather from the conversation I heard it seems the Pirates have lost Ridley somewhere, and hopefully he isn't off running amock somewhere on his own. Scales has agreed to help them find him in exchange for the Phazon."  
  
"And you."  
  
"And me. But since I'm gone that part of the bargain isn't going to go through. I think he'll have to renegotiate some terms because of that. So I think we have time to find the ship."  
  
"Okay, about that. What ship are you referring to?"  
  
"The Pirate's ship." Fox fluffed his tail at his side and pondered this. So they were going to go invade a Pirate ship. Inwardly he almost felt like laughing at how ridiculous that sounded, but it was hardly the time. "I don't expect you to follow me." Samus added suddenly.  
  
"Oh, I'm sure you'd like that," Fox chuckled, tapping his thighs with his hands absently. "But as long as Scales is involved, so am I. I hate leaving business unfinished."  
  
"You won't get paid."  
  
"Sure, I will....if I bring him in for that bounty you so graciously mentioned earlier." Samus flinched. At least it looked like she flinched – it was kind of hard to tell with the static coming through the window.  
  
"We'll discuss that when the time comes," she said casually, her voice finally relaxing it seemed. Fox smiled toothily, feeling rather crafty all of a sudden. "For now we need to locate the Pirate's vessel. It's going to take some time, but if we focus on message signals and ask around it shouldn't be too hard." Fox nodded, stretching his hands out in front of himself clasped before relaxing and resting his head on a fist.  
  
"I'd think they'd be somewhere close, else the signal wouldn't be so clear to Scales. I'll send out some requests and see if any of the local stations around here have spotted anything unusual." Samus nodded in reply.  
  
"I'll start deciphering signals, then. When you've got any concrete information, meet me at the local space station in this quadrant." The map and coordinates popped up on Fox's screen left to Samus' comm window. He glanced over and looked at it. He knew the station well enough and nodded. "Be quick, fuzzums." With that, her signal shut off and her ship sped past him into the distance. Fox watched her go and went about finding information as to who had seen what. He was rather pleased at the station she'd chosen to meet at – they had good meatballs at the restaurant there. Now that she couldn't hear him he chuckled outwardly. They had nicknames for each other already and they'd barely been working together for a day.  
  
Samus, on the other had, was a little amused that she was actually allowing someone to follow her OR work with her willingly. She usually preferred to do things alone – less risk of losing people or having them get in the way unnecessarily. Fox, it seemed, could handle himself though, so she decided to give the furball a shot. Besides that, the fact that they met up twice now struck her as a little unique. Particularly in the same day. As a child Samus had been taught to watch out for things that may have seemed coincidental but could have been something more. The Chozo had given her a very spiritual upbringing, and yet she tried to be rather logical best she could. So while she wouldn't immediately accept that Fox's reappearance may have meant something important, she didn't dismiss the thought entirely either.  
  
Like all things... she figured she would just have to wait and see...... 


	10. Darkness In Her Eyes

Fox felt more at ease once he had exited the docking bay and entered Kau's Space Station (bar, grill, spa and hotel all in one). The scent of various well-seasoned dishes filled his nose and quickly reminded him how long it had been since he last ate. He almost couldn't help running his tongue over his chops a little. Aside from the multitude of meals calling his name, the overall atmosphere also played a part in his change of mood. His chat with Samus moments earlier had been rather somber in tone - as to be expected considering what it concerned. But here you almost couldn't think about your problems. No matter how hard they plagued you, the joyful and relaxed surroundings radiated an utter calm and carefree feeling.

He ventured down the hall towards one of his favorite restaurants, his tail swaying with an eagerness to sink his teeth into those meatballs he had recalled earlier. As he rounded a corner and was heading for the entrance, he felt something grasp the back of his vest and tug him backward. He wobbled and yelped a little before gaining his balance again and darting an agitated glance over his shoulder. Samus' hand continued grasping his vest as she looked down at him slightly. The bounty hunter had opted to release her suit for this particular location, standing there in the getup she had been wearing when they were in the cell. Truthfully, Samus came off to Fox like the kind of person who would live in their armor if they could, so it was a bit of surprise that she willed the second skin away on her own. On second thought, though, it was probably smartest considering the passive nature of the station. If she had waltzed in with an arm canon looking all threatening there might have been some very unwanted attention. One thing that was different, though, was the fact that her hair was out of the ponytail and swept up against her shoulders. The way it framed her face was something Fox found rather striking.

"Where are you? I called you like five times," she said, finally releasing him so he could turn around to face her. Resting a hand on her hip she cocked it to one side and tilted her head, seeming a little annoyed at his mental distance.

"Ahhh," Fox said, more a noise in the back of his throat than a response. He wasn't about to admit that he'd almost forgotten she was there altogether due to food of all things. "Well, I didn't know where you wanted to meet. I figured I'd go have a seat in here and you'd find me eventually." He gestured aimlessly at the door.

"Right," Samus replied. Her tone was clouded so he couldn't tell whether she believed him or was just agreeing. She didn't say any more than that before slipping past him towards the restaurant to enter. Fox huffed a breath and followed, not even realizing how he tilted his head to watch the rather curvaceous rear that the hunter had wrapped in her black undersuit. Luckily, his head up righted itself once Samus had turned and slid into a booth. He moved into the opposite seat, his tail fluffed and curving up to lay by his thigh.

"Okay, so I called around to see if anyone had any info on this Pirate ship of yours," he said after a moment's silence. Samus had been glancing around, her fingertips tapping the table almost furtively. It was like she expected something bad to leap out amongst the numbers of restaurant goers and attack her. Fox had watched this for a few minutes. He was fairly good at reading body language and now that Samus was not hidden behind the bulk of her otherwise unfeeling exterior, she seemed tense. What was interesting was the expression on her face didn't match the energy she was exuding. There was a trained, instinctive calm over her features, particularly in her eyes. Her face didn't even change when he spoke and she turned to look at him from being distracted. It was as if he'd had her attention the whole time. Fox mused about how this would have been a good ability to have when he was back daydreaming during his school days.

"And?" she asked simply, her fingers stilling themselves on the table's surface.

"Locally, no one has seen anything out of the ordinary. But one station I contacted did recall that not to long ago their transmissions and monitoring systems sporadically went offline... like they were being scrambled." Samus regarded Fox for a moment before lowering her eyes.

"They must have clouded the signals so they could get by unseen..," she muttered. Her fingertips moved to her lips and tapped there. "But... could they have developed a system like that themselves...? Enough to scramble an entire station's systems...for more than a few seconds?" Fox watched her have this talk with herself for a moment and could almost see her mind running a mile a minute.

"You're worried their leader did it," he interjected. Samus turned her gaze towards him, her hair sweeping over her bare shoulders with the motion. Her eyes focused on his for a mere second before she turned them down again.

"I'm not worried. I'm just considering the possibilities. It's best to assess things from every angle so you don't get any nasty surprises later." Fox couldn't muffle the chuckle that escaped his furry muzzle. "What?"

"You're worried." Samus straightened herself and put her hands in her lap, looking at him with an annoyed grimace.

"I don't worry. I analyze and assess."

"Well, you're analyzing and assessing too much," he replied, trying not to smile too widely as his tail tapped his booth seat. "Come on. We're in the most relaxing space station in this system... Business is business, of course... but we may as well take advantage of it."

"You're not very serious about your work are you?" she asked bluntly. Fox cocked an ear downward at this but the curves at the corners of his mouth didn't let up.

"I'm perfectly serious about my work. But what good is it going to do us to get riled up about things we don't know for a fact, Blondie?" He crossed his arms and rested them on the table, leaning forward and watching her.

"What do you mean? We know for a fact that Scales is running around attempting something or another that involves a highly dangerous and radioactive substance and the Space Pirates. That's not good cause to start planning a retaliation?" Samus replied, maintaining her ever-calm visage - her tone remaining more business-like and as unphazed as ever. "Not to mention Scales' bounty."

"It's a perfectly good cause to start planning, I agree. But until we find out where the ship is there's not much we can do... And since you didn't, at any point, interject that you found any useful information I'm assuming that you have none either." Samus huffed an almost invisible sigh. The only reason it was visible at all was the deep rise and fall of her chest. Finally, her head bowed and her eyes fell to gaze blindly at the table. Fox's furry brows furrowed a little at this. Agitated as ever and unable to really show it. Didn't this girl get out and have any fun or was this bounty hunting all she ever did? She sure seemed consumed by it. Driven was a good word too. He was starting to wonder what it was that pushed her so.

"Samus…," he started after awhile, speaking her name for once instead of the nickname he'd given her. She lifted her eyes to look at him and there was something different in her generally chilled eyes. Fox found himself unable to form a sentence. Truthfully, he wasn't exactly sure what he had planned to say in the first place.

"What?" she said finally, to break his silence. Fox's mouth opened a little as one of his ears twitched slightly.

"Wh…" He was cut off when the waitress in the restaurant approached their table, perfectly shattering an awkward moment. Samus shifted her gaze from Fox to the girl and Fox did as well before looking back at her and simply finishing, "…What do you want to eat?" He gestured helplessly and leaned back against the back of his seat, bowing his head a moment.

He felt a little lost in how to talk to her now. So far he had been trying to get a feel for how Samus acted and how she was internally. Up to this point he had figured that she was a rambunctious woman with a rogue-like desire for action and cash – a woman who would sooner shoot than listen to anyone's sob story. But as he continued to talk to her he started to wonder. She still seemed like a strong person, even while she sat without her suit right in front of him. It was obvious she was guarded. Her unwavering expression told that much. She'd molded herself in a way that, in most instances, her exterior told nothing about what she felt or thought.

But of all things he expected to see in her otherwise fiery eyes, he hadn't expected to see that.

She was scared….

…of what, he was still uncertain….

Could it be Scales? He didn't suppose so… Scales was a bully but hardly anything to get frightened about. Was it the phazon? When Samus spoke of the substance she certainly expressed an immense dislike for what it did to certain life forms. Perhaps she'd had a bad run in with them? The Metroids had certainly been enough to give him nightmares… and Samus had said that she had run into a phazon enhanced Metroid….

…but no…she hadn't seemed bothered by that memory. Pirates…? She spoke of them with disgust or indifference…

…..so that left… their leader. The large, prehistoric bird she had shown him. Was she afraid of him? Fox lifted his eyes to watch her again as she spoke with the waitress. But why should she fear something like that? It was just another dinosaur wasn't it? Certainly she'd faced worse.

"Fox."

Her voice broke thought the numbed silence of his thoughtful fog. His ears perked. "Yes?"

"It's your turn to order."

"Oh…right."

_Author's Note: Thanks to everyone who's been reading Unfamiliar Atmosphere. I realize I left this fic ages ago and never thought I'd come back to it. But the reviews and encouragement have made it easy for me to write again. I hope you'll continue to enjoy and read what I have in store for these two. _

_On a secondary note I noticed there was a question as to where Krystal and Falco are at this point. For the sake of this fic I'm figuring the Krystal resides on the Great Fox with the team, though I haven't determined the extent of her relationship with Fox. I will say that Fox is still single in this fic, however. Falco is going to be included in the story but he is currently not on the Great Fox – he is out on his own. _

_And lastly, I'm curious to see what you guys think about my portrayal of a more human Samus. In general I think most have a view of her as a ruthless bounty hunter and that's it. Specifically, though, I'm referencing those online "Samus Origin" mangas again, as to how she acts or reacts to certain things. So yeah  consider that in your reviews, I'd be happy to hear about it._


	11. Fire

Most of the meal was consumed in a rather out of place silence. It was as if a bubble surrounded their booth amidst all the hustle and bustle of the restaurant. Fox did his best not to let this, or his cruising thoughts, ruin an otherwise very tasty place of pasta and meatballs. It wasn't as if he was really the most talkative individual himself, but he enjoyed mealtime chatter. Hell, most meals conducted on the Great Fox were far from quiet - particularly when Falco was present. His fiery wingmate was calm and cool, but if anyone could rile Lombardi into a heated debate it was Fox...and almost always these occured over food - of all things.

Boys were never too old for a food fight...

Samus, he'd noticed had taken on a rather hearty meal herself. A full plate of steak, mashed potatoes and corn. At least it was safe to say she had a healthy appetite. At least she wasn't a salad and kruton's with bottled water kind of woman. He didn't quite understand those. You ate to enjoy eating or because you were hungry - not to project some image to anybody that you were eating healthy, or cared what you saw them eating. No, he was pretty sure Samus would quite happily devour a cow and simply give onlookers a grimace that said "Yeah, I'm eating an animal, got something to say about it?"

As the time passed their plates gradually became cleared and Fox mused at how Samus cleaned herself up. Her tongue swept over her lips once, to catch any remaining food parsels or sauces before the crumpled napkin followed, wiping each finger somewhat carelessly. No dainty dabs of a handkerchief here. But who was he to talk? His tongue had covered his maw about five times now, intent on not letting a bit of his meal go to waste. Again they found themselves sitting in a silent moment, with no food to use an excuse now. One of Fox's ears twitched and he glanced at the mini specials menu at the end of their table near the wall. It featured various specialized desserts.

"Well, before we bear down and crack our knuckles, how about some cheeseca---," he began, before he looked over to find his companion's seat empty. His ears perked curiously and his green eyes darted about the restaurant just to glimpse her figure disappearing out of the restaurant door after hitting the payment counter. Well, at least she wasn't leaving him with her bill. Scooting out from the booth he made a quick stop to pay for his food before he headed out in an attempt to catch up with her. What was her hurry? She was always in a hurry. He trotted down the hallway after making a right or left decision upon leaving the restaurant. It didn't help she had longer legs than he did and could have been a ways off and he wouldn't know where to even look. He didn't exactly want to scour the entire station either. To his surprised luck she hadn't gone that far. He was striding past a line of doors to his left that consisted of various social spaces he passed one that contained an atrium. It full of various lush plantlife accented with rocky, half broken pillars and seats made to look like ancient ruins.

It was dark inside except for a few dim lights. Overhead there were skylights that gave way to the starry atmosphere. When Fox backpeddeled he was surprised he'd noticed her there at all. She was a lone figure in the dimness, her back to him as she sat on one of the 'fallen' pillars. The only thing that caught his eye was the shimmer of her blonde locks reflected by the light and stars. He stood a moment in the doorway before softly padding into the dark room, tail swaying. As he drew closer he could see she was sitting in front of a mini pond and waterfall, her gaze concentrated on something.

"Hey...Blondie...?" he spoke as quiet as he could without having his tone fade into a complete whisper. Samus lifted her head, but not in a jerky manner of surprise. As it lifted it was plain to see she was watching a butterfly flutter away from her open palms, startled by the approach of the stranger. Her gaze remained on it until it had flittered out of sight entirely. Fox watched it go as well, his mouth open slightly before he looked back to her. "Sorry about that. I didn't know you had a friend with you," he said in a softly friendly tone.

"It's fine," she replied, brushing her palms together as if to dust away the feeling of the butterfly's tiny feet. Inwardly she scolded herself for getting so lost in her own reverie. With the tiny butterfly in her hands, so dainty, small, and beautiful she'd drifted back into worse times again. "On the planet where I grew up...," she spoke after a moment's silence, not allowing him to speak first, "when I was younger I found the most beautiful field of flowers I'd ever seen... And in that field there was a flock of ...Iono Faria.." She opted to use the term her grandfather Chozo had taught her, rather than merely calling them butterflies as she had then. For a moment she recalled how she used to get so mad at him for making everything that was simple so scientific and complex.

_Isn't saying just 'pretty' enough?_

She remembered he'd just smiled that bird-like smile and silenced his intellectual mannerisms. "But then they discovered that the flowers were dangerous... That they were foreign and poisonous... So the next day, they torched the entire field...and the Faria with them." Fox tilted his head and listened to her. Samus touched her palms together again lightly. "They said it was a threat to our ecosystem... So they destroyed it. No questions... no qualms..." She tilted her head away from him and upward as if looking towards the vines crawling up the walls. "Survival... Everyone's out to survive...claw their way up to the top. No second thoughts... Just blow it up... let it burn... that's all there is to it..."

"Yeah, but...," Fox finally slipped into the one sided conversation as he slipped over and seated himself on the pillar. He was faced the opposite way from her, his tail draped over in the direction she was facing. "Fear rules a lot of people...that's what sets a lot of the world aflame..." Samus turned her head forward again and looked at him out of the corner of her eye. She wasn't aware that he was regarding her in the same indirect fashion. No tears like he had suspected, he noted... Her voice hadn't been quivering, so he hadn't been sure. "Heck...blasting the crap out of things is how most of us live today. I know I do... and I'm pretty sure from watching you, you've had your moments of rolling in the line of fire. ...But, really, If it's one thing I've learned it's that the world is always going to be on fire...in some way or another. All you can do is take the time to let yourself cool down... or you'll be engulfed by it... ya know? Can't let it blind you so you're acting like a wild thing."

He turned his head to look at her directly now, his hands resting beside his legs where he sat, fingers tapping the stone. "And it's the job for people who can keep it cool like that...to cool down the knuckleheads like Scales who are running around with their heads on fire." Samus turned her head just slightly to look back at him. His lips curved into a playful smirk. "But we can have a short weenie roast before we put them out. Or S'mores... Do you like s'mores?"

Samus' brows and lips curved into an expression that said she found his rambling odd yet somewhat helpful and inwardly amusing. She shook her head and he chuckled softly. Lifting his hand he rubbed the back of his neck and glanced upward.

"I guess what I'm sayin', Blondie..., is that bad things do happen...and a lot of the times they aren't going to make sense. They aren't going to be fair. They are going to be cruel. The only way to counter that is to do the opposite yourself and remedy what you can." He looked back over to her and lowered his hand. "You're still human inside...you have to make yourself stay that way...or you're no better than them." Samus listened to Fox and watched him, her eyes locked intently onto his in the dark before turning her head again, letting her hair sway over her shoulders.

"I suppose that makes sense...," she said quietly. Fox watched her quietly, suddenly wanting to touch her hair that looked so soft in the dim light. He restrained himself, of course. He was trying to be helpful and he didn't need to get in trouble. Despite the fact he was on his own fast pace and hated explaining things to anyone, Fox had always kept his own inward softness alive. He had plenty to be angry about, plenty to fuel a rampage on...and yet he still couldn't help trying to cheer up anybody who was getting dragged down. He felt particularly compelled when it was a pretty girl. It was sad that someone like Samus seemed to be so buried in conflict and strangled by shadows of her past. Both she and himself were still fairly young...and had already been through enough for many lifetimes. "Thank you," she murmured quietly. If his ears hadn't been so keen he may have missed it. Resting his hands in his lap he nodded lightly.

"Don't mention it..."


End file.
